Fury on streets as Kopassus officers dismissed, handed jail sentences

The three soldiers from Indonesia’s special forces unit Kopassus who led a murderous attack on a group of prisoners in Yogyakarta in March, have been dismissed from the military and handed sentences of up to 11 years in jail.

The verdict in a military tribunal in Yogyakarta will infuriate the men’s supporters in the city’s numerous ‘‘mass organisations’’, who believe the men are heroes for killing four preman, or gangsters, and ridding the streets of violence.

But the verdict will reassure human rights groups, who had called for a heavy sentence.

The military judges, under presiding judge Joko Sasmito, found the three ringleaders of the 12-man attack convincingly guilty of premeditated murder.

Second Sergeant Ucok Tigor Simbolon was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment, Second Sergeant Sugeng Sumaryanto to eight, and First Corporal Kodik to six years, close to the prosecutors’ demand.

Outside, hundreds of people in paramilitary uniforms immediately roared their disapproval at the process, at human rights groups and at gangsters, setting fire to tyres and signalling their intention to protest. Some hinted at violence.

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The men’s defence counsel had argued the killing was spontaneous and that Sergeant Ucok, the ringleader and trigger-man, had gone to the prison only to beat up the gangster ‘‘Diki’’ and his friends for murdering another Kopassus sergeant, Heru Santoso, in a nightclub fight three weeks earlier.

They claimed Sergeant Ucok had been spooked when somebody threw a crutch at him upon entering the gangsters’ cell.

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The judges, though, found that from the time the soldiers started driving to the Cebongan prison in Sleman, Yogyakarta, they had formed the intention to kill.

The judges found that the three accused had broken into the prison at gunpoint and shot three of the prisoners immediately upon reaching the cell.

Sergeant Ucok’s weapon then jammed. Sergeant Sugeng helped him fix it and he then returned to the cell, asking “which is the other one?” before shooting a fourth man.

Judge Kurniawati Syarif said Sergeant Ucok’s exit from and re-entry to the cell proved the men had intended to kill.

Other accused men took the video security equipment from the jail back to barracks, where they burned it and threw it in the river.

This case is being closely watched as a test of the strength of Indonesia’s democratic institutions.

Kopassus was tasked by then dictator Suharto with carrying out Indonesia’s dirty wars against insurgents in East Timor, Aceh and West Papua, but even after his fall, the unit enjoyed wide forgiveness for its crimes.

Five other defendants were given one year and nine months’ imprisonment, with no dismissal from the military, also broadly in line with the prosecutors’ demand.

Outside the court, a defiant Sergeant Ucok said: ''I respect the law, and that's why it's my right to appeal.''

He thanked the ''people of Yogykarta'' for their support.

''Once I have served my sentence, me, my wife and children will live in Yogyakarta, and together we will fight the preman,'' he said.

As the convicted soldiers departed, uniformed protesters gave them a wooden slingshot each, a stone to shoot - a symbol that they would fight the sentence - and a batik scarf.

''The people will fight back against the sentence delivered today,'' speakers in the crowd said. ''The panel of judges do not have a conscience, they only read the law literally so that the sentence is unfair. Kopassus should not give up to preman.''